Small errors in state pension payments may have big effects in the long run, it has been found with many people potentially being overpaid or underpaid for years. The errors relate to a decades-old IT system which may have underpaid or overpaid people pennies each week.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says it is looking at ways to fix errors in the IT system which have led to people receiving the wrong pension amounts. The BBC reported the problem relates to an ageing computer system introduced in the 1980s and an inability to accurately uprate an element of the state pension called the Graduated Retirement Benefit (GRB).
GRB is an addition to the basic state pension for people who worked during some of the 1960s and 1970s. While some people may have been underpaid, others may have been overpaid and the issue has occurred over “successive governments”, according to the DWP.
